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Mount and Blade: Fire and Sword, kicking my ass

Ok so I splashed for the collection when the sale came up on Steam and am currently dying of shame seeing 50 HOURS logged playing this over the last 2 months. I suppose my main question is, is it actually possible to win, and can you help me?

Yes I'm sure loads of you guys have swept the map clean but I can't seem to move out of stalemate with the other factions. I'm sworn to the Crimeans. It just 'kind of happened' in the same way that you meet a pretty lass down the pub and wake up ten years later and find yourself married with children. I'm not sure if they're a bad choice overall but the Khan never seems to be able to stay focused and ends up involving himself in all sorts of wars while I try to make sure my paltry two villages and a castle aren't burnt to the ground. The Muscovites hate me and consistently chase me around my villages (and in the game?).

Does anyone here have any general tips for being better at this? Any stories of glorious conquest? I tend to do well in combat for the most part but am having lots of difficulty expanding beyond what I have and from preventing our faction from being mercilessly pillaged by the Cossacks and Muscovites. If I'm going to waste my life on it I want to at least make more progress!

I never stuck with Fire & Sword for long. I enjoyed it while it lasted, but returned to Warband (and recently, the RPS-mentioned Pendor mod), which I find superiour.

The trick is not to do things on your own. Build up a good (20+) reputation with all your faction lords if you're part of a faction. Then you can influence them to tell them "go here, conquer that fort" even when you're not Marshall of your faction.

When you help an Usurper or carve your own nation (I forgot if that's actually possible in F&S), you're Marshall forever and ever and can order your troops around as desired.

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@Vexing Vision
Ah, thanks! I was actually elected Marshall the other day randomly, and didn't know what I could do with it. Moscow here I come...

I started a game in Warband, won a tournament and then started a game in F&S for comparison and just got more involved with that session. Not sure how to compare them right now as I only have about 2 hours in Warband.

I have never got that far into a mount and blade campaign, despite having played hundreds of hours of the games...

However, I have recently been play a WFAS campaign myself and have decided to loot and burn villages, something I never did before because I wanted to be a 'good' guy. In our (the swedish) war against the Poles, we managed to reduce them to only a few fiefs really quickly. Whether this was because of my looting, or just chance, I don't know, but I until recenetly (when I stopped looting) the Polish armies hardly ever had elite troops. Something to bare in mind.

I have also completely changed my opinion of WFAS. I much prefer it to warband now! My main complaint before was that it was really easy to die, but in this playthrough I only ever die when I get off my horse and get stuck into melee combat (oh the joy of using a sword that is twice as tall as you are...). I don't if this is because I'm playing differently, or if the game has been patched to be easier though.